14 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



IX. General Progress at the Museum, Bloomsbury. 



The exhibition galleries ot' the Museum have continued closed 

 throughout the year. In order to palliate the loss to the nation of 

 so important a source o£ education and recreation, and in particular 

 to avoid the distressing necessity of turning away from the doors 

 hundreds of Overseas and other soldiers desiring admittance, 

 authority was obtained towards the end of the year to arrange 

 for parties to be personally conducted round such parts of the 

 galleries as had not been stripped of their contents for purposes 

 of protection. This scheme, however, was frustrated by the 

 necessity, which became obvious towards the end of the year, of 

 taking precautions against air-raids of a much more formidable 

 character than those previously experienced. Steps were accord- 

 ingly taken, and were in progress at the end of the year, to remove 

 a larger proportion of the collections to places of greater safety, 

 and to cover up the others m situ. These measures have made it 

 impossible, at any rate for the present, to proceed with the scheme 

 for the partial readmittance of visitors. 



The Reading Room, Newspaper Room, Manuscript Students' 

 Room, and to some extent the other departmental Students' Rooms, 

 have remained open. Visitors to the Reading Room numbered 

 121,538, as compared with 134,501 in 1916. This total is slightly 

 less than half the total in 1913. The Newspaper Room figures 

 were 9,108, a reduction of 353, and less than half the figures of 

 1911 and 1912. The Manuscript Room had 5,483 visits, 230 less 

 than in 1916, but again less than half the latest peace-time figures. 

 Other departments had only 2,820 visitors, as against 5,411 in 1916. 



Further reductions in the staff were made in the course of the 

 year for purposes connected with the war, and by the end of the 

 year all men fit for general service below the age of 36 had been 

 released, with the exception of one fireman, whose services are 

 indispensable. At one time all men of the highest classification 

 had been released ; bat a fresh medical classification placed a few 

 of the older men in the general service category, whom it has not as 

 yet been possible to replace. A beginning has been made with the 

 employment of women as attendants in the Reading Room. 



The total number of members of the staff at Bloomsbury on 

 military service is now 115, and at the Natural History Museum 60. 

 16 have lost their lives in the service of their country ; 34 have 

 been wounded ; 19 have been invalided out of the army ; 3 have 

 received the Military Medal ; 36 have been granted commissions. 



Progress was made with the re-arrangement of the collections 

 in the departments of Antiquities. The Coptic Room has been 

 arranged, and the collections of Babylonian and Assyrian bricks, 

 boundary-stones, gate sockets, &c., transferred to their new quarters 

 in the Second Northern Gallery. The Hall of Greek and Latin 



